Objective: It was examined whether caloric conditioning or social learning strategies dominate in taste preference acquisition in children. The caloric learning paradigm predicts that eating or drinking arti®cially sweetened products, which deliver virtually no energy, will not lead to a taste preference whereas the social learning paradigm predicts that seeing important others modelling the eating and drinking of these`light' products will induce a preference for the taste of light products in the child. Design: In a 2Â2 between subjects factorial design, the amount of energy and social modelling was varied. Setting: The study was undertaken at primary schools in Maastricht, The Netherlands. Subjects: Forty-®ve children participated and six children dropped out. The 39 children who completed the study (14 boys and 25 girls) had a mean age of 67 months (range 51 ± 81, s.d. 5.6). Interventions: Each subject took part in nine conditioning trials with an individually selected tasting yoghurt which was not preferred very much at the pre-test. Results: The children in the combined caloric and social condition showed an increase in their preference for the conditioned taste which was larger than a regression-to-the-mean effect (P 0.007), whereas children in the other groups did not. Conclusion: Caloric and social learning combined, ie modelling the consumption of energy-rich foods or drinks, is the best way to establish taste preferences. Children more easily learn a preference for energy-rich food that is eaten by signi®cant others than for food that is low in energy and eaten by signi®cant others.